still quoted and for which he was sought after and admired when the youth who was to succeed him at Will's Coffee-house sent an ode (the first which he had published) from Magdalen College, Oxford, inscribed, "To Mr. Dryden, by Mr. Jo. Addison," and dated June 2nd, 1693.

CRUSOE," 1719.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE "COFFEE-HOUSES."

Daniel Defoe-His Ups and Downs-Jonathan Swift-Gay's "Trivia" -Dunton the Publisher-Jacob Tonson-Bernard Lintot-The Court at Kensington-Will's Coffee-house-Steele and AddisonButton's Coffee-house-Pope and Voltaire-A Picturesque AgeNando's Coffee-house-A Scurrilous Publisher-The Kit-Kat Club-Francis Atterbury and Joseph Butler.

THE chief representative of the world of letters in Fleet Street in the time of James II. was the famous Daniel Defoe, and he may be said to have touched almost every point in the circumference of literature of which that highway was the centre. He is remembered as a political essayist and pamphleteer, for he wrote hundreds of these publications, and suffered for his sturdy honesty in defending the principles of civil and religious liberty; but his fame as a graphic descriptive writer has been more enduring, while as an original story-teller or novelist

of concentrated power, he still holds a recognised place in the literature of the country. The power is none the less striking because it was held in reserve, under the control of his amazing faculty of invention, which, by its mastery of details, gave an air of probability, and even of fact, to works of imagination. Of these "Robinson Crusoe" is but one among many, though it is the one which has retained its popularity for nearly two centuries, and seems likely to maintain it still, though it has been long regarded rather as a book for boys than for adult readers, for whom it was first published, and who found delight in its religious reflections, as well as in its vivid descriptions, and in its romantic and apparently veracious narrative.

Daniel Defoe, the son of James Foe, a prosperous dissenting butcher in Cripplegate, was sent to a good school, kept by Charles Morton, a well-known scholar, and afterwards began his career as an agent in the hosiery trade, in Freeman's Court, Cornhill. But his footsteps were drawn towards Fleet Street, even in those early days, as is shown by his tract, “Presbytery Rough Drawn," published in 1683, before the death

of Charles II.

On the accession of James, young Foe was on the side of those citizens who supported Monmouth, whom he followed to Sedgemoor. After the defeat there, he escaped to the Continent, visited Spain and Portugal, and came back with a "De" before his name, so that the author of three other pamphlets, in 1687, in the reign of James, was Daniel "De " Foe.

XVII.]

DEFOE IN THE PILLORY.

355

Though, when William III. came to the throne, Defoe was able to write without being persecuted, and advocated many projects the advantages of which have only been fully recognised in later days, he had to retire to Bristol to avoid the proceedings of a creditor, who, with others to whom he owed money, was paid out of the earnings of the indefatigable writer. He then returned to London, and was employed for five years, till 1699, as accountant to the Commissioners of the Glass Duty.

The accession of Anne, and the persecution of dissenters, reduced him to poverty, but did not daunt him. So subtle was the satire of "The Shortest Way with Dissenters," that at first several of the more violent Tory Churchmen professed the utmost delight with it; while certain leading dissenters denounced it with unbated breath. When it was discovered that the essay was a keen satire written by a dissenter, the tables were turned, literally "with a vengeance," and the author again appeared in Fleet Street, but was taken thither from Newgate that he might be placed in the pillory, after having already been similarly exposed at the Royal Exchange and the Conduit in Cheapside. He was also fined 200 marks, and was sentenced to remain in prison till he found sureties for his good behaviour for seven years.

Harley, becoming Minister, induced the Queen to remit the fine and shorten the punishment, and subsequently Defoe was employed to go to Scotland to promote the Union; but he returned, not only to London, but to his former independent support of

principles which did not suit a Tory Government, and was again prosecuted and imprisoned. After writing a vindication of himself, he was compelled, by broken health, to retire from the field of political controversy, but he continued to write those fictions which have done most to place his name in the forefront of those who have been identified with the Highway of Letters. The story which made his lasting fame Dr. Johnson placed along with "Don Quixote" and the " Pilgrim's Progress," the only three books which the reader wished were longer.

The personal appearance of Defoe was was well known, and he is described, in the proclamation which orders his arrest, as a middle-sized, spare man, of about forty, with dark complexion, dark-brown hair (but wearing a wig), hooked nose, sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth. Rather than the printer and the publisher should suffer, he surrendered, but his punishment became a sort of triumph. The pillory in Fleet Street, like those at the Exchange and Cheapside, was hung with garlands, for it was in July (the rose month) that he was brought out. He had written his "Hymn to the Pillory," which was printed and distributed. Crowds attended him, and drank his health with acclamations, as they read the lines :

"Tell them the men that placed him here

Are scandals to the times;

Are at a loss to find his guilt,

And can't commit his crimes."

Even his opponents, the Tory pamphleteers, were